I started out as a broadcast journalist, but fate took its course when I literally fell in love at first sight with my husband of 33 years. I then taught school, of various subjects and age groups and now write about food, health, humor and life.

Friday, December 03, 2010

Is It Just Me?

This may sound silly, but I hate making phone calls. Obviously as a journalist, I make a lot of those darn things. More often that not, I don’t mind-but this week I feel very Scrooge-ish toward good old Alexander Graham Bell.

Why?

Here it is-I was assigned what appeared to be a pretty easy story on the housing market in a local VERY upscale neighborhood. I received it at 5 p.m. Thanksgiving Eve. My deadline: Monday evening.

You probably guessed there wasn’t a darn thing I could do about it until Friday morning. But I had a few leads, so I immediately sent out e-mails and left phone messages. I wished the first 3 “hopefuls” a very Happy Thanksgiving and I hoped to connect with them at their convenience anytime they could by Sunday evening. I told them my deadline.

Surprisingly enough-I got a phone call back that night! It was a realtor who said she would love too but she would be out of town until Monday night. I asked if she had a partner or any suggestions. Thankfully she did and sent the phone number not to me, but to my editor! This meant I didn’t see it until Friday afternoon.

The other 2 realtors never returned either the voice mails or the e-mails. I interviewed the realtor who was most helpful and kind with her time, but when I asked for a client’s name to use as an anecdotal-well, let’s just say this is why I hated phones and all things communication the rest of the weekend.

Bear in mind, I also had my daughter, son-in-law and grandkids here until Monday morning and I was doing my best to get in as many hugs and kisses as possible. And I had a lot of story time to catch up on as well. But I will pat myself on the back here and say I did a pretty good job!However by Monday-I was nearing a state of panic. I have NEVER asked for an extension and I have NEVER not finished an assignment. But I couldn’t find a homeowner in that little burg to talk to me!

As one realtor put it “you have to understand the area, if we were in a low to mid scale neighborhood you’d have people begging to be a part of this story, but here, well you’re bruising their egos!”

Hmmmm. Anyway-I Googled, Craigslisted and yes, even found a phone book of agents and just began cold-calling all of them and begging/pleading with them to help me. 25 phone calls and over a dozen e-mails later. I had zip.

By 3 p.m. I sent a note to my editor asking for the embarrassing extension. She understood and said to just keep trying.

I did-finally (Thank you my guardian angel) at 5:15 a realtor/homeowner called me!!! I talked to her and thought-well, at least I can write this up. My husband was coming home for dinner, but I told him I’d be upstairs with my BFF-Bessie (what I call this old box of frustration).

What do you know-I had completed the first draft, came down and put dinner on the table when the phone rang!! Yes, I had another fantastic homeowner calling to help. Woo hoo! He was very nice and if I ever know of anyone who has a traumatic brain injury or a child with a congenital brain problem I will definitely tell them to Google this fine neuro-surgeon. Oh, he also works extensively with people who are morbidly obese. I’m not sure how that actually ties in with the rest of the home selling, but he was very interesting and I hope to come up with a story idea to use him as a reference for at some point in later writing life.

I finished up the story in record time, submitted it-with pictures in jpg and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Because I’m a writer, that’s what I do-and I now had to prepare to make another phone call to interview a speedy sommelier for another article. I’ll tell you all about that another time.

Oh, you're re-living my worst nightmares for me. I've been out of journalism now for well over 30 years but I still have recurring dreams about having a deadline upcoming and nothing to write about. Working as a beat reporter for a daily newspaper will do that to you.

I remember being in similar situations and just grabbing a phone book, finding residents in a particular neighborhood and cold-calling them. I would do that, for instance, when police were stonewalling me on what heinous crime had happened nearby.

About Me

I've always wanted to be a writer, so I'm doing that now! I started out doing broadcast journalism, fell in love at first sight and got married. I put aside my journalism career to raise our family and run a pre-school and day care business. After our kids were officially out of school-I decided to start free-lancing again. Much easier but less financially pleasing with the internet.

Hoping to be able to make a permanent go of writing, since I love the written word and the reaction it still gets.